More and more small businesses are connected to the internet now than ever.
From point-of-sale terminals and cloud services to user accounts and all of the software you need to run your business, there are numerous points of entries attackers can use to access your data.
Cybersecurity for small businesses involves using multiple strategies to safeguard your data and create backups in case something goes wrong.
In this post, I cover threats putting small businesses at risk and the solutions they can use to avoid them.
Cybersecurity for Small Businesses: Overview
Cybersecurity involves using multiple strategies to safeguard data and protect networks and devices from cyber-based attacks.
Common forms of cybersecurity include:
- Network security – Protecting your internal network
- Endpoint security – Protecting every device you and your employees use
- Application security – Choosing reliable software and maintaining updates
- Cloud security – Protecting cloud-based systems and data stored in the cloud
- Data security – Protecting data, information and sensitive files
- Access security – Controlling who in your organization can access certain networks, servers, data, devices and software
Malware and ransomware are the biggest threats you need to watch out for.
They impact devices and networks in different ways, allowing attackers to:
- Access to your data through backdoors
- Steal passwords with spyware
- Take over accounts by stealing session tokens
- Take over devices and demand payment in exchange for restoring access (ransomware)
Attacks are more likely to occur when businesses do not take cybersecurity seriously.
Internal threats and habits that facilitate cyber attacks include:
- Weak passwords
- Lack of multifactor authentication (MFA)
- No access management
- Poor network security
- Outdated software
Businesses can prevent cyber attacks by strengthening login security, controlling who has access to what in your organization, protecting endpoint devices and implementing firewalls to protect networks.
Creating regular backups is also important because it allows businesses to recover lost data, which can happen with or without cyber attacks.
Businesses should look into hiring an IT specialist to handle cybersecurity tasks.
You can hire a freelance IT specialist on an as-needed basis to set things up and handle crises when they occur.
Managed IT services offer the best solution. Many offer services through a subscription with multiple tiers to pick from, allowing you to decide how much to spend on cybersecurity given your needs and budget.
The last solution would be to hire a dedicated IT specialist, but this is expensive and may not make sense if you don’t have a lot of IT-related tasks to handle on a daily basis.
The Impact of a Security Breach
Data and financial losses are the biggest consequences of security breaches, but it doesn’t end there.
Security breaches come with a lot of added costs due to:
- Having to pay IT specialists to repair and secure systems
- Needing new equipment if your existing setup is found to be insufficient
- Having to reimburse customers if they were impacted by a security breach
- Being required to pay fines and legal fees if a data breach is the result of negligence
- Less revenue due to customer loss
- Less revenue from having to cease operations
According to a 2026 report by IBM, the average cost of a data breach worldwide is $4.99 million USD. This is a 12% increase from the previous year.
A supply chain breach in which a business partner’s infrastructure was compromised was the biggest factor that led to increased costs. It increased costs by $227,250 on average.
It’s very difficult to detect and contain this kind of breach due to it involving a third-party’s IT infrastructure.
The report also says there’s been a 56% increase in AI-driven attacks, including AI deepfake impersonations and AI-enabled malware.
55% of attacks were caused by malicious or criminal attacks while 23% and 22% were the cause of human error and IT failure, respectively.
38% of breaches were disclosed by a company’s IT team while 31% were disclosed by a managed IT service provider.
Reportedly, only 42% of businesses fully recovered from data breaches within a year.
Businesses are switching to proactive IT services that prevent and contain attacks.
Cybersecurity Threats & Challenges Harming Small Businesses
COST
Certain solutions might be too expensive for businesses. Plus, some business owners might cheap out on cybersecurity in favor of allocating funds to other areas of business.
NO BACKUPS
If you have no backups or only store backups in one location, you have fewer options when it comes to restoring data.
POOR NETWORK SECURITY
Every device you connect to the internet is at risk from threats. Without a firewall and other safeguards, it’s easier for attackers to gain access to devices through your network.
NO ACCESS MANAGEMENT
Being lenient on user permissions, giving too many third parties access to your systems and not removing access leaves your organization vulnerable to external and internal attacks.
MALWARE AND RANSOMWARE
Widespread threats that may bring down your operations, lock you out of your accounts and devices, and lead to data loss.
KNOWLEDGE GAP
How little you and your staff know about cybersecurity. The larger the gap, the more vulnerabilities you’re likely to have due to an inability to recognize habits that leave you at risk.
SKILLS GAP
The capabilities you and your staff have when it comes to IT. The less knowledge and skills you have in IT, the less capable you are at safeguarding systems and handling IT-related incidents.
UNDERTRAINED STAFF
Knowledge and skills gaps aren’t uncommon. Unless you work in IT, you’re less likely to hire staff based on their knowledge of IT. However, if you don’t train staff in cybersecurity, you leave yourself open to attacks caused by human error.
Related: How to Train Employees On Cybersecurity
POOR LOGIN SECURITY
Weak passwords make it easier for attackers to breach accounts through brute force. If you also don’t have multifactor authentication enabled, your system is highly at risk of being breached through unauthorized access.
OUTDATED SOFTWARE
If you don’t install security patches for operating systems and software applications as soon as possible, you leave yourself vulnerable to whatever threat such patches prevent.
NO INCIDENT RESPONSE PLAN
Cyber attacks aren’t 100% preventable. You’re at a higher risk of not being able to contain them if you don’t have a plan on how to handle incidents in place.
NO VENDOR MANAGEMENT
If you don’t audit the technology partners you use regularly, you may wind up using a software or service that’s no longer safe. For instance, some software becomes abandoned and no longer receives security patches.
COMPLIANCE ISSUES
Being reckless with cybersecurity doesn’t just threaten your own data; it also threatens your customers’ data. Negligence with customer data and privacy violates regulations like HIPAA (healthcare) and the GDPR (EU regulation), which may lead to fines and legal action.
Determine which laws and regulations a business in your country, state/province, and industry must comply with.
Cybersecurity Strategies for Small Businesses
FIREWALL
A firewall monitors incoming and outgoing traffic between your own internal network and external networks. Firewall rules block unauthorized access, protecting you from attacks.
INTRUSION DETECTION
An intrusion detection system is software that monitors traffic going to and from your network and alerts you when it detects behavior that’s not authorized or if your firewall rules have been bypassed.
BACKUPS
Create regular backups, and store copies in multiple locations. Choose a backup interval that aligns with how much new data your organization generates. Daily, weekly, biweekly and monthly intervals are common choices.
Store backups from different days. This gives you multiple restoration points to choose from.
Keep multiple copies of backups, using a combination of on-premises backups and offsite backups. Use your computer, a NAS server, an external hard drive and cloud storage.
STRONG PASSWORDS AND MULTIFACTOR AUTHENTICATION (MFA)
Password security is important for devices and user accounts alike. An attacker doesn’t need to use sophisticated attacks if they’re able to uncover your password easily.
Have employees generate strong passwords made up of a string of randomly generated numbers, letters (uppercase and lowercase), and symbols. Teach them how to store passwords with a password manager. Business password managers exist for this purpose.
Set up multifactor authentication for employees as well. Common solutions include passkeys, authenticator apps, and having to input temporary codes sent through text, phone calls or email.
Multifactor authentication acts as a fallback, blocking access when passwords become compromised.
However, it’s important to note that certain MFA methods may become ineffective if devices are targeted by SIM swapping or session hijacking.
ENDPOINT SECURITY
Endpoint security protects any device in your organization that connects to the internet.
Devices are protected with a firewall, next-generation antivirus software (NGAV) that’s capable of detecting malware that doesn’t leave a signature, web filters that protect users from malicious code on websites, access logs, and application control that prevents employees from installing applications on their own.
ACCESS MANAGEMENT
Access management, also known as identity and access management (IAM) or access control, is the practice of creating roles in your organization and controlling what each role can access.
It also involves setting up multifactor authentication and removing access for users who are no longer part of your organization.
RISK ASSESSMENTS AND SECURITY AUDITS
Conduct a vulnerability assessment and security audit regularly to identify security gaps in your organization.
This includes identifying threats, analyzing risks and their potential cost, reviewing third-party vendors, looking at user accounts and determining if any need to be removed, reviewing access logs, making sure devices and software are up to date and well protected, and retraining employees on cybersecurity.
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